Hemp Bar Shuttered After Clash With Authorities

A hole-in-the-wall storefront in New York City that specialized in chocolates and pastries containing hemp has been forced to close down by city health department regulators over… wait for it… a lack of sinks.

A Forbes contributor speculated that the unreasonable crackdown could have erupted because of confusion on the city’s part over the differences between hemp and marijuana, its psychoactive cousin. The end result, however, remains that Brooklyn Dark Hemp Bar is now closed indefinitely.

The establishment was run briefly by an Uzbekistan immigrant whose line of chocolates is also carried by several other small vendors. But according to the Village Voice, city inspectors told him that the two sinks already installed in the coffee-shop-turned-hemp-bar weren’t enough, and that he needed four total.

The owner refused to comply with what he said were “beyond stupid” requirements, instead shutting down the new shop.

The health department, meanwhile, insists it was only ensuring that standard rules for food vendors are followed and that the action had nothing to do with hemp specifically.